Crickets

Here are a few more shots from last week's outing to Bavon and New Point.

Last night the Mathews High School cross country teams won their last regular meet of the season, with many runners setting new records.  Justin Adams, in Daughter's class, set a new course record.  Emma Hudgins, my neighbor's granddaughter who is a JV runner, also ran a tremendous race. The girls won in spite of many serious injuries.  Daughter shaved some more time off her personal best. It was a very exciting evening to be a cross country parent.

In other excitement that is not so welcome, Son's car has been in the shop since last week.  My car needs new tires.  Work is busier than usual, and I'm juggling incoming requests and Major Life Deadlines with my teenagers that cause exchanges like this:

Son:  "Have you ordered my cap and gown?"
Me:  (crickets) "Have I seen the paperwork?"
Son:  (crickets) (He doesn't understand the word "paperwork" because his world is paperless.)
Me:  "What do I need to do?"
Son: (crickets)
Me:  "I can't do anything if I don't know what to do."
Son:  (Debates using my last remark in his nomination for Most Profound Mother of the Year award, but then realizes there may be paperwork involved, plus deadlines for nominations, etc.)

Or then there's this:

Son:  "Hey, you know the week after graduation?"
Me:  (crickets) (Too far in advance and I'm in denial graduation exists.  Perhaps explains no cap and gown ordering, whether there was paperwork or not.)
Son:  "Well, a bunch of us want to get a beach house down in Nags Head."
Me:  (Heart pounding out of my chest, blood vessels getting ready to explode all over the place but I remain outwardly nonchalant) "Oh. Hmm. Who all would be going?"
Son:  "This one and that one.  And the other one.  And more."
Me, picturing House Party to end all house parties:  "You know teens cannot rent houses."
Son:  "There would be an adult chaperone."
Me, stifling laughter and hysterics. Also blinking back tears: "Does this adult chaperone have a name?"
Son:  "Yeah, I think it's between a couple of people right now."
Me, wondering how quickly I can obtain a passport and flee the country:  "OK, well, we'll talk about this some more. Later. Much."

Since this is not the "How to Survive Parenthood" blog, I'll cut this post off here. Even though I could go on and on.

And on.

Don't get me started on the college application due next week.

Serenity now.

Click here for the sound of crickets,  which I choose to focus on in all of these conversations. For the sake of sanity.

Egret

One day last week, as I was leaving the New Point Light observation deck, I happened to glance off into the marsh and noticed this egret, who was sunning himself.

Or herself.

I'm not an astute enough heron or egret watcher to know whether there are discernible differences in color or other markings.  I can distinguish between a male and female cardinal, no problem.  But egrets? Just not that up to speed.

Anyway, this one was basking in the glow of the sun that particular afternoon, not at all perturbed by my intrusive camera.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This will be the first full/normal work week I've had since the week of September 23.  The last home meet of Daughter's cross country season is Tuesday evening. District, regional and the state meets happen over the next month, however, so we'll be busy with those.  I must focus on preparing for November's half marathon, which is breathing down my neck like a fiery dragon.  I've not run more than six and a half miles since April, and my knee shin foot back has been threatening to give out on me for about a week now.

Otherwise, things are good here in the Chesapeake Bay Family household.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Lighthouse

Remember yesterday when I said the clouds had parted and the sun came out?  Well, that was short lived, because Tuesday was back to Drearyville--do not pass Go, do not collect $100.  (Or is it $200? I never had much patience for Monopoly.) In case you didn't know, Drearyville is a suburb of Unemployment City, where Chesapeake Bay Woman has lived for the past several weeks.

Monday's spectacular sunshine reverted immediately to Tuesday's overcast skies and continued unemployment due to the government shutdown.

Waaaaaay off in the distance is New Point Light. 

Luckily I still have photos from the one day the sun came out.  

These were taken from Bavon, at the end of Old Bayside Drive.

You can't see the lighthouse here, but this is the point of land shown above, zoomed in.

This is a grainy shot of the lighthouse, zoomed way in.
My camera has a decent zoom, but the quality of the images
isn't always great, mostly due to the person using it
and her general lack of technical skills.

This was taken from a closer vantage point,
the lighthouse observation deck.
A little better, but still not great.

Unless the Government Fairy Godmother sprinkled angel dust pixie dust over Congress last night, I won't have work today either.  That's OK.  I have an eye appointment at Gloucester Point, which will eat up several hours of my life day, and Daughter has a cross country meet at the West Point Country Club this evening.  Since I've never been to the West Point Country Club (or any other country club, for that matter) before, I'm actually looking forward to it.

Wait.  I went to some country club before.  A wedding.  Decades ago. Golf carts were stolen and there was lots of driving in places where golf carts weren't supposed to be involved.  I want to say it was somewhere in Northern Virginia but can't swear to it.  

Whatever.  So I've been to at least one country club before, but never the West Point Country Club.

This blog post, which has flitted from sunshine to vague Monopoly references to Drearyville and its suburbs to country clubs and pixie dust, is now mercifully coming to a close.

Click here and here for more information on our lighthouse.

Weather Vane

This adorable structure which looks like a combination home/outbuilding/shed/garage/church with a cockeyed steeple lives in Bavon.

I'm not sure how accurate that weather vane is, but I admire its tenacity.

Tornado

Much to our surprise, the temperature rose to 80 degrees on Friday.

Even more surprising, an incoming cold front spawned a tornado down at Davis Creek.

Davis Creek is at the southernmost end of the county,

in a little neck of the woods called Bavon.

Those who attended Blog Fest a couple years back will remember this as the place where we caught the boat to tour the lighthouse and surrounding area.
(Click here for a few pictures of us standing around before boarding the boat.
I know I have photos of the building, just not readily available.)

Thankfully, nobody was injured. 

After ravaging this adorable structure, the tornado plowed through the yard below, taking down a power line and damaging nearby homes and sheds.

Just to the right of all this, everything appears untouched.
But if you click on the image (below),

you can see some of the roof was torn off that structure.

And yet, in the middle of all this insanity chaos, there is a message of hope.

This and the boat in the first photo are one and the same.
The irony in the name is priceless.

For once, there is a lot for me to report--over and above the tornado, which is noteworthy enough. Click here for more news coverage about that.

First, the eighty degree weather inspired quite the photo tour for me on Friday.

Saturday I raced out to capture the damage from the tornado.  Again, we are grateful nobody was injured and thankful that it wasn't worse.

Before the tornado, however, Chesapeake Bay Daughter (a tornado herself on the basketball court) went on to win her final game, which meant her team was undefeated for the season.  That last game was absolutely brutal and deserves its own blog post.  In the meantime, this morning at 7:35 a.m. she, another teammate and her coach will be featured on our local radio station 99.1 WXGM. I will be listening from my office in Williamsburg an hour away. My parents are taking her to the station.

There's so much more to report about last Friday, but we have all week to talk about that.

Here's to a great Monday and an even better week, hopefully free of tornadoes and chaos.

-CBW

Venturing Out

Yesterday, after sleeping all day lying around nursing a Christmas cold that refuses to leave, I decided to venture out to the ends of the Earth opposite end of the county from me, the Bavon/New Point area.

It was pretty chilly and there was a good breeze blowing.

None of this deterred a kayaker, who was gearing up and preparing to put in just as I arrived.

I didn't take his picture, but trust me he was out there somewhere just as I was snapping these. I think he slunk underneath the dock.  Slunk is the past tense of slink. I think. Or did I thunk he slunk?  To slink is to sneak stealthily underneath a dock when someone with a camera desperate for something to take a picture of happens to be nearby. There's no need to check this on Wikipedia or Merriam Webster online or anything. Except if you did, you might find this.  And here I thought I had made up a new word. 

After spending some time on the observation deck at New Point Light  reflecting on the cool breeze and the elusive kayaker,

I returned to the car and headed back up the road towards home, but not before I took a few more pictures of a seagull festival going on down Sandbank.

Stay tuned.

Scenes from Bavon

Thursday morning I drove down to the end of the Earth county to check on the beautiful marshes and the lighthouse.

Except for a quick trip down here with my classmate Johnny Pugh back in March, I hadn't been in this neck of the woods since Blog Fest, 

I was relieved to see that everything was just as I remembered it.

Only far prettier.

The greens and blues were so overpowering, I actually gasped.

Then, when a horse fly flew in the window I'd rolled down to take a few pictures, I screamed.

The End.

p.s. I only screamed when he landed on me.  If you've ever been bitten by a horsefly, you don't need any explanation for that scream.  

This concludes the third consecutive blog post involving insects or my screams.  

Both are quite common here in Mathews.

Three Things

Once again Thursday is upon us, and here on this blog that means Three Thing Thursday is upon us.  The rules are made to be broken very simple:  I share three things and you share three things, on any topic whatsoever.


I'll go first.

1.  Last night I attended Chesapeake Bay Son's JV soccer game at the high school.  This marks the third game I've been able to attend, and the third time something has gone awry.  Tonight the game was cut short by lightning.  For the other two games, which were away, I ended up at the wrong place.  This is a topic for another blog post because diagrams, detailed explanations, and circus music are involved.

2.  Chesapeake Bay Daughter is on spring break this week.  When your mother works and your brother is on an entirely different school schedule which includes circus clowns soccer games, spring break is not all that special except that you get to sleep late and do a whole lot of nothing all day long.

3. With everything going on around here,  I would give my eye teeth for a one-way ticket to Bora Bora to do a whole lot of nothing-- for just one hour.

Now it's your turn to share three things.  As always, three is merely a suggestion.  If you want to share one thing or five things, it matters not.  Just share something and know that I truly appreciate hearing from you.  


Have a great day.

Click here for a link to the circus music that could very well be the background music of my week life thus far. I'm hoping Anonymous Commenter "mer" will locate a better version of this song or a more appropriate song for the otherwise chaotic and circus-like pace which is my life.

Deep Thoughts

Look deep into Nature,

and then you will understand everything better.

-Albert Einstein

The poetry of the Earth is never dead.

-John Keats

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature.
It will never fail you.
-Frank Lloyd Wright

Then again, there are exceptions.
-Chesapeake Bay Woman

Bayside

Last Friday I had the privilege of touring the southern end of the county with a former classmate of mine who had information and old photographs for the book I'm working on. One of the many places we visited was the site of the former Bayside Wharf.

The wharf, which he said stretched waaaaaaay out from where we were standing, was obliterated by Hurricane Hazel.

Today, the site is marked with a pavilion which is available for rent from the Mathews Land Conservancy. These pictures were taken from that pavilion.

 Click here for information on the wharf and the MLC.

Here's a picture of Johnny Pugh, my high school friend who was ever so happy to tell me what he knew.  And what he knows are facts and details which cannot be read in books or studied in school.

What he knows may be my next book.

Thank you, Johnny.